74 THE DOLPHm. 



From what caufe the ancients were prejudiced in fa- 

 vour of the doiphin it is not cafy to determine. The 

 figure is fuch as could create no partiality ; its manners, 

 which are fierce and rapacious, could ftill Icfs endear it ; 

 and it does not appear that this fifln fliews any attachment 

 to mankind, more than the reft of the cetaceous tribes. 

 It perhaps has arifen from commiferation, on hearing 

 that plaintive moan, by which, when taken, it expreffes 

 its fufFerings. In a vcflel where feveral dolphins were 

 confined, fays an old writer, I fpent a night of great 

 pain and uneafinefs, fo feelingly did thefe wretched 

 creatures exprefs the miferies of their condition, in 

 cries and lamentations, refembling the human. Their 

 fufFerings forced from me tears of compafTion; and 

 while the fiih':rman was afleep, I forced the one that 

 feemed to fuffer the greatefl agony overboard into 

 the fea. This a£t of tendernefs availed me nothing ; 

 for the moaning of tliofe that remained behind, feemed 

 only to be encreaftd •, who made figns too plain to bemif- 

 underQood, that they wifhed for a fimilar deliverance. 

 Thus I fpent the night in unavailing forrow for fufTer- 

 ings that I could not alleviate^*. 



Thefe prejudices in favour of the dolphin, are now fo 

 wholly obliterated, that even the common people regard 

 them in a very ditterent light. Their appearance is far 

 from being deemed a favourable omen by the feaman ; /or 

 their boundings, fpcrts, and frolics in the water, are held to 

 be fare indications of an appi"oaching: florm f. It is not 

 known whether thefe motions of the dolphin are the 

 g'ambois of pleafure, or the efFecls of fear. They pro- 



* Cilliusapud Willough. page 3I. 



■j- Britiih Zoology, and Willoughb, lib. ii. p. 39. 



